FTC Shuts Down Pop-up Ad Scammers
The Federal Trade Commission just shut down the operators of a multinational tech support company that tricked people with alarming pop-up ads. The agency announced its complaint today against the operators of a firm allegedly serving pop-ups featuring siren and buzzing sounds that alerted recipients to fake security threats and prompted them to dial toll-free numbers that connected them to overseas telemarketers who aimed to swindle hundreds of dollars for phony security fixes.
The commission’s complaint alleged that the ads duped people into believing legitimate well-branded firms such as Microsoft and Apple were the source of the security alerts. Some ads featured an audio message featuring a voice warning people of a computer problem. When consumers called the toll-free numbers promoted in the ads, phone operators in a call center in India aimed to sell them computer repair services that required remote access to their computers for between $200 to $400.
“The FTC has brought cases against numerous tech support scammers over the last four years,” said Jay Mayfield, an FTC senior public affairs specialist.
